Saturday, April 16, 2016

Burial & Resurrection: Toyota Crown Custom (Part 2)

Today I’d like to continue the story about the custom-project on the basis of automobile Toyota Crown of the 5th generation. You might have already learnt from the previous article that the car, which had been buried and strewn with bricks, was found quite by chance in 2009.
Having spent so many years in an adverse environment, part of the frame and chassis almost completely rotted away. All these elements had to be restored from zero.


To ensure maximal correspondence between the custom and original versions, one more Toyota Crown of a later generation was purchased, after which the old body received a more modern chassis. Also, at the wish of the new owner, the masters slightly changed the profile of the car, by lowering the roof and removing all the plastic and chrome-plated moldings from around the perimeter of the body. During the whole restoration period, both in technical and electronic aspect, this car underwent a very large number of various custom operations, about which I might go into details next time.
It took about five years, since the very beginning of the restoration works until the day, when the owner was able to drive this car to one of the local tuning shows. Being under constant modifications, this car is considered as an unfinished project. However, Id like to tell you a bit about some technical improvements that changed this car fundamentally.




One of the essential solutions when building this car was the extensive use of stainless steel in the structure. Such practice is not supported by the world’s automakers, since it increases the final cost of the product. In this case, focusing on the durability of his car, the owner never posed any financial limitations, however. Thus, absolutely every screwed element of the body and chassis (bolts, nuts, washers, plugs, etc.) is made of high-strength stainless steel of A3 and A 5 makes. The bolts and nuts had to be custom-made, so as not to change the metric data and thread standards of the manufacturer.
To be continued...

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